The Summit, which took place on June 7 and 8 in Brussels, was organised by the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies and featured speakers from collecting societies, record labels, book publishers and film studios.
Google supported the opening cocktail reception and Carlo d'Asaro Biondo gave a keynote speech in the afternoon of day one. Biondo is president, southern and eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa operations for Google.
In the speech Biondo stressed repeatedly that Google had changed and was now concerned with preserving cultural heritage and respecting copyright. "The role of technology in preserving and supporting culture is very important and Google has evolved a lot in seeking to contribute."
He also tried to please a primarily European audience by saying that too much of the content of the web - 46% - is still in English.
"I work for an American company," he said, adding: "I love and respect America, but I don't want the world looking like America."
As examples of how Google is concerned with preserving and improving access to culture he referred to: the company's project to digitise the Dead Sea Scrolls; its work to improve access to the works of Nelson Mandela; the Google Art Project; the deal the company has signed with Hachette Livres;and even a decision to set up a cultural institute in Paris.
"I think we've made significant efforts to prove to the world that we're capable of respecting authors' rights and of respecting the value that is conveyed by the rights of authors," he said at the end.
But it was not enough. The two-day conference was peppered with criticisms of Google that often resulted in laughter and applause from the audience.
Immediately after Biondo's keynote, the next discussion panel opened with a video in which young consumers talked about what they download and whether they should pay to download content.
"To me they seemed to understand intuitively what copyright was about rather better than some large technology companies that we've had to deal with," said Richard Charkin, executive director of Bloomsbury Publishing.
Earlier in the day, Valdo Lehari, vice president of the European Newspaper Publishers Association, praised the decision of the Belgian court to find Google's news service guilty of copyright infringement.
"People pay for access to online content with their private data - they allow Google to target their interests and sell the data," he said.
The next day Frank Dostal, president of German Lyricists Coalition and vice chairman of the supervisory board of GEMA, was scathing. He spoke of a presentation he saw at a previous copyright summit by a "very attractive and eloquent man whose job is to save the cultural heritage of mankind".
"A company that is worth 80 billion bloody dollars cannot be a private UNESCO. Please Google and YouTube pay us adequate remuneration," he said to widespread applause.
He was speaking at a session called European perspectives on IP and copyright - creators meet policy makers.
In the same session Alfons Karabuda, a composer and executive chairman of the Swedish society of popular music composers, warned EU policy makers, including Maria Martin-Prat, head of the copyright unit in the IP directorate at the DG for the Internal Market and Services, about the different agenda of Google.
"There are many people who do not agree with us and they will tell you a different story to us," he said.
The idea that the interests of Google and creators are fundamentally opposed was underlined during a keynote conversation given by Robert Levine, author of Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business can Fight Back.
"The more they [Google] distribute the more they make. The lower the cost of your product the more they can distribute. Their interests are in direct opposition to yours. I would look more at what they do than at what they say," he told the audience.
Earlier that day Francis Gurry had announced that WIPO would be working with Google on a rights registry project that will build a common digital platform to help streamline the identification of protected musical works in 11 west African countries.
He also said that it was considering working with Google on its project to create an International Music Registry, though he stressed that no final decision has been made and that it would be up to Google to show that the registry would be free for everyone to use and that anyone could use it to operate any business model.
"It's normal," said Gurry when asked afterwards by Managing IP about the level of hostility towards Google at the Summit. "Google is a massive business and people are afraid that it's going to take all their data.
"I have explained to Google that they are going to have to provide some assurances," he said.
It seems those assurances will have to involve more than PowerPoint presentations and drinks receptions.
